Example of the application of the CUEX methodology: the calculated exposure resulting from routine stack releases from the Haddam Neck Nuclear Power Plant

The CUEX (Cumulative Exposure Index) relates the concentrations of various nuclides in the environment to assigned annual dose limits. A computer code has been written to calculate this index for stack releases of radioactivity. This report is written to illustrate how the code in its present form can be applied to a particular reactor. The data used here are from the Haddam Neck (Connecticut Yankee) Nuclear Power Plant, a relatively large plant that has been in operation for 6 years. The results show that the highest exposure expected from the actual releases of gaseous ⁸⁵Kr, ¹³³Xe, ¹³¹I, and ³H is about 0.2 percent of the as low as practicable limits set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Of the nuclides considered, ¹³³Xe is by far the most important; the chief mode of exposure to this nuclide is submersion in air. In the case of ¹³¹I the main exposure route is external irradiation from the activity on the ground except for the special case of the thyroid for which about 70 percent of the exposure arises from ingestion. (author)